Makeup and Beauty Blog | Makeup Reviews, Swatches and How-To Makeup
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YO. I literally cannot escape my manager. He’s on my @ss 24/7, watching me, looking over my shoulder, micromanaging every. Single. Thing.
Even when he’s allegedly “taking a break,” he keeps one eye open, so he can monitor my activities.
It’s a Devil Wears Prada situation to the Nth degree. MY BOSS IS A BEAST!
I feel like every girl (and every boy who loves makeup; yes, I know you’re out there, and I love you!!!) has a default makeup look they turn to whenever they need to feel just straight-up pretty…and that’s definitely what I needed this morning because I woke up tired today, dude!
For real, I got like two seconds of sleep last night. The wind was crazy loud and howled all night long (“Awooooo!”), which fired up Tabs, who consequently spent the entire evening running circuits around the bedroom, knocking stuff off the dressers, climbing all over my boobs and generally doing naughty tabby things.
That darned cat! If he wasn’t so adorably squishy, I’d be raging mad at him right now. 🙂
Needless to say, I needed a pick-me-up this morning, so I figured, heck, why not do something makeup-wise that I really like to wear, so I ended up doing my favorite look to wear in the whole wide world — brown smokey eyes, pink cheeks, pink lips.
Yep, mah standby. 🙂
Guerlain Baby Glow, Guerlain Baby Glow, Guerlain Baby Glow… Now try to say that three times really fast without thinking of tiny glow-in-the-dark infants.
It’s almost impossible, isn’t it?? THOSE DAMNED GLOWING BABIES.
I’ve always wanted to look like an incandescent infant.
OK, not really. 🙂 But I like the idea behind Baby Glow. It’s a sheer foundation that’s supposed to make you look less stressed and flat-out exhausted by appearing to plump your skin (only aesthetically; it doesn’t actually plump it) and make it look more luminous.
The new product line recently launched with the spring collection in just three shades ($54 each) — 02 Clair, 03 Medium and 04 Dore.
I’m closest to 04 Dore, the deepest shade (incidentally, I’m an NC42 in MAC-speak), a medium-toned peachy golden tan, although I think it’s still a tad too light for me to wear on its own, so I warm it up with some bronzer or mix it with a darker foundation.
Bobbi’s new collection is hot! Hot in name, because it’s called the “Hot Collection,” and hot in person.
I mean really, when I opened that eyeshadow palette and saw that hot pink bezel bumping up against those gorgeous nudes (um, why did that sound so naughty?), I was like, “smokin’!” Throw in a few high-voltage lip colors (BAM!) and some chic cheek palettes (POW!), and I start getting hot like that time I thought I accidentally locked myself alone in the sauna at a spa and started to panic.
“Sszzzt!” Or is it “zzhht”?
Why is it so hard to make a sizzling sound in print?
I don’t know…but I do know that if we rolled up to a Bobbi Brown counter and saw these beauties posting up on a display, I’d lick my finger, point at the collection and make that “sszzzt!” sizzling sound like a skillet with hot fajitas. Then I’d say something cheese-ball like “Muy caliente, mami!” in the worst Spanish accent ever (“Accent could use some improvement” is what my Español teacher usually wrote in the notes after oral exams).
So, the collection comes out next month, which still qualifies it for official spring collection status, but I’m getting summer vibes. The hot pink packaging for the nude eyeshadow palette and the bold orange, berry and pink lips seem beachside chic to me, which kinda makes sense since it’s a collaboration with model Kate Upon and was inspired by her Florida hometown.
If you like lined nude eyes, bright lips and softly defined cheeks, that’s what the 11-piece Hot Collection’s all about.
Kate and Bobbi dreamed up the effortless summery pieces to help women (and men!) strut more confidently. Shoulders back, head up, smile on, WERK!
Now, for the Hot Nudes Eye Palette…seriously, if every makeup company could just pop their nude shadows into hot pink palettes for the rest of my life, I would be totally OK with that.
This all-purpose eye palette does anything and everything — smokey, subtle, sultry, you name it. It features four re-promoted shades from the permanent line (Eye Shadow in Ivory, Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow in Smoke, Eye Sparkle Eye Shadow in Cement and Metallic Eye Shadow in Nude Glow), as well as four new colors (Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow in Peach Sugar, Eye Shadow in Petal, Metallic Eye Shadow in Bronzed Beige and Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow in Blackest Brown), and all eight of them wearable.
If you’ve been following Bobbi for a while, you may be experiencing déjà vu, but what I like about this particular palette is how the mid-toned shades are close to each other on the color spectrum (not too contrasty), which makes blending them about 1,000 times easier.
I keep grabbing this palette for everyday looks, especially with black winged liner, because 1) I don’t have to think too hard (always a plus) and 2) because there are quite a few different finishes represented, including glitter, shimmer, metallic and matte.
By the way, there’s also a re-promoted black liquid liner in the collection called Ink Liner in Blackest Black ($28).
As for the lips…THE LIPS! Agh! I don’t even know where to start.
OK, you know what they say — when in doubt, go with hot pink, and for me, I’m all about the Art Stick in Hot Pink ($26).
I wore it the other day, and two (yup, two) makeup artists that I ran into said (in so many words), “Homegirl, I need to know what’s on your lips!”
It’s not just about the amount of pigment, either, or the vibrant hot pink color. It’s something else… The finish. It’s matte, but not a flat matte. All of the Art Sticks have that finish.
Oh, did a mention that the Art Sticks are huge? Because they are. Good thing each one comes with a pencil sharpener that fits.
They’re also pretty darned moisturizing as far as matte lipsticks go, and they last five to six hours on my lips.
** HIDDEN GEM ALERT **
Sephora’s $21 MicroSmooth Sculpting Contour Trio in Sublime is a genius move if you’ve been lusting after the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders but can’t bear the thought of dropping 45 large on a single pan.
Sublime, one of six $21 Baked Sculpting Contour Trios in the newish Sephora Collection, consists of one pan with three shades — a luminizer for highlighting, a matte-satin bronzer for defining and contouring, and a matte-satin blush for cheek color.
At least, that’s how it’s designed, with those three functions in mind, and I’m sure lighter skinned lasses can probably use it that way, but I think of this trio as primarily a highlighting palette, which is where the Hourglass Ambients come into play.
Two of the three shades in Sublime are nearly identical twins of two amazing Hourglass Ambient shades. Specifically, Sublime’s lightest shade (the one designed for highlighting) is the spitting image of the champagne pearl Ambient Powder in Luminous Light, while Sublime’s darkest shade, the sun-kissed golden beige, could headline a show in Vegas as a Radiant Light impersonator.
And Sublime’s pink middle shade also reminds me of a warmer version of sheer lavender pink Hourglass Ambient Powder in Mood Light.
The special sauce is Sublime’s finish. All three of its powders impart the same soft candlelit glow (more of a soft glow than a frosty shimmer, so it plays well with my pores) that I love the Hourglass Ambients for, and it’s something I haven’t seen at many other brands.
I think this pan is a STEAL at $21, and worthy of jumping in your hot tub time machine and going back to yesterday to get, so that you could already have it on your cheeks right meow. 🙂
If Sublime sounds…sublime, it’s available now at Sephora stores and online.
If I were wearing Guerlain’s KissKiss Lipstick in Rosy Silk ($37) and blew a kiss across a room to a handsome stranger (let’s call him Nick Jonas), that kiss would drift off my lips and float like a shimmery pink and gold apparition.
The featherweight formula is eminently forgettable…in that I forget sometimes when I’m wearing it because it’s so comfortable.
But the color is anything but forgettable. The slightly see-through pink with golden shimmer alights on my skin like sunshine filtering through the petals of a blooming cherry blossom tree, tender and romantic, ah…
I think one layer works best, which I apply directly from the tube, and then pat down with a finger. When I add more layers, they don’t help, and the formula starts to seek out flakes and settle into my lip lines.
All the gloss without the goop. Thank you, Paul & Joe, for helping my lids to glisten without the games that often accompany gloss-tacular eyes.
Yeah, man! Eye gloss isn’t just for Victoria’s Secret Angels who stomp-walk down the runway anymore. We, too, can make it an everyday thing, thanks to Paul & Joe’s Eye Glosses (they’re also called the Eye Gloss “S”).
They have an airy, whipped consistency and a non-sticky texture, so they feel like light feather kisses, and because they dry all the way down (unlike the many glossy formulas out there that stay wet), the gloss shouldn’t shift and settle into your fine lines or creases as you go about your day pet assisting (I feel your pain).
All five of the new spring Eye Gloss “S” shades have a dewy finish and a moisturizing formula that contains jojoba seed oil, orange flower water, sodium hyaluronate and white lily extract, and they seem pretty hydrating. There’s silvery golden Secret d’Or (01), pale silvery blue Firmament (02), pearlescent purply pink Angel’s Wings (03), silvery caramel Creme Brulee (04) and silvery orange Antique Coin (05).
Like the big, burly bouncer at da club who goes by the name, Tiny, Tom Ford’s new eight-piece spring collection is a study in contrasts. Pitting light against dark, and sheer against opaque, it takes the idea of sweet spring pastels and gives them the middle finger.
Sure, it’s an immaculately painted middle finger, but still.
Yeah, this collection wants to start sh*t! On the surface, it seems like the furthest thing away from a typical spring release, far more rowdy rockstar glam than happy Easter.
Blackened blue and forest green nails; rich plum, sapphire and cocky khaki lids; and nude lips and colorful lashes. I mean, just look at that model…
That girl is not sitting primly at high tea right there and wearing a prissy floral dress.
But delve a little deeper, and the collection reveals a softer side… Take the three new eyeshadow duos in Ripe Plum, Raw Jade and Crushed Indigo ($60 each).
All three have Tom’s latest shadow formulation and can be worn wet or dry (the formula’s very similar to the NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadows).
To go full-on, high-intensity rockstar, wet a flat eyeshadow brush, and apply one of the darker shades. Or, go with one of the lighter shades applied with a dry domed brush for a softer veil of opalescent color (that’s how I’m wearing them in the pics below).
To really embrace the contrasty concept, start by laying one of the darker shades all over your lids, then apply one of the lighter shades directly on top in the center to catch some light.
While these do have a metallic finish, it’s not a source of stress. They don’t apply crazy frosty, so any fine lines should be fine.
As for the two tinted mascaras in the collection, well, let’s just say that if you’re going for something bold and bright like the girl in the campaign poster is wearing, you may need to prep your lashes first with a couple coats of a black curling mascara.
With either of them — Teal Intense or Black Plum ($44 each) — on my lashes alone, the colors don’t show up. I have to prime my lashes first with a black mascara. In these pics I’m wearing the mascaras without having done any prep work, and the tints are barely visible.
The mascara formula also relaxes the curl (grr).
There are also three nail lacquers in the release — Black Jade, Indigo Night and Bitter Bitch ($32 each). I’ve tried Black Jade and Indigo Night this week, two of the three, and both of them look almost black on my nails.
